From the Arizona Republic (Shaun McKinnon):
Drought-stricken Lake Mead has dropped an additional 10 feet since last summer, and now, Arizona and other Colorado River users are scrambling to keep the reservoir full enough to avoid water rationing. Before year’s end, the lake will likely sink to within 9 feet of the level that would trigger the first round of restrictions – and the first such restrictions ever on the river. They begin with a reduction in water deliveries to Nevada and Arizona, where farmers would be affected first…
Lake Mead water levels determine drought status on the river under a set of guidelines adopted in 2007 by the seven Colorado River states: Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. If the lake reaches the first drought trigger, measured at an elevation of 1,075 feet above sea level, water deliveries below Lake Mead are reduced by a little more than 10 percent. Additional cutbacks would occur if the lake continued to drop. The reservoir is now at an elevation of 1,087 feet above sea level – its lowest level since 1956 – and is projected to drop an additional 3 feet this year, which is why water users are trying almost everything short of hauling water in buckets…
One provision of the 2007 agreement allows the bureau to release extra water from Lake Powell if winter runoff is plentiful, raising Lake Mead levels faster. The four upper-river states are uneasy about letting extra water flow downstream, but the rules are clear, Gray-Lee said. No extra water was released from Lake Powell this year because precipitation runoff into the upper Colorado through July was 73 percent of average.